Abstract

It is important to have a plan before I begin the Requirements elicitation for my project. This will give me an insight into the elicitation activity. It will help me identify the elicitation techniques I should use and help me identify the ones that are not necessary for my project. This can also help identify other resources that may be useful during the requirements elicitation. The requirements I will be gathering will be for my student accommodation application Room-me. This application is designed for students who have to travel long distances from home to attend college and need accommodation for the year. The app should offer the best prices for students as well as meet some of their requirements such as distance willing to travel, type of home they are looking for, price and wheelchair access etc.

There will always be students attending the variety of colleges around Ireland each year. Many of these people live in rural parts of Ireland and therefore travelling to different counties to attend third level education is necessary. Due to the high demand of young students looking for accommodation and many colleges not having the resources to accommodate all those students in need, many students result in searching independently for accommodation. This can result in many home owners charging the rates that they want. This results in many students having to work long hours to pay for their living space and can have a negative impact on their examination results. The accommodation needs of students can vary some may want their own apartment, some may want just a private room, some may need wheelchair accessible homes however it is important to be realistic and weigh up the costs of these requirements and identifying how necessary they really are. Renting your own apartment is an unrealistic option when attending a college full time therefore the practical option is to stay with a host family or to rent with others in a similar situation.

To understand the business need in more detail, it is important that I conduct a requirements elicitation so I can determine what requirements stakeholders would want from such an application. For example this could include specific information about the guest, information about colleges and information about the hosts.

The concept of Room-me is to provide a service to students who are looking for long term accommodation, hosts who have spare rooms that they are willing to let out and potentially increase the number of students attending colleges. The overall goal is to find students affordable living space that tailors for their needs, give the host the opportunity to earn some extra cash. Room-me will work by both hosts and guest creating a personal profile that gives some basic information about themselves for example name, age, sex, interests, likes and dislikes. The host could have images uploaded of the room/rooms they wish to let out and provide details about the home such as who lives there, family interests and local attractions that are nearby. Students will enter a minimum and maximum amount they are willing to spend, the distance they are willing to travel from the accommodation to their college, the college they are attending and can refine their search based on things such as home type, House rules and accessibility. Students will be able to make contact with hosts through a messaging feature and the two parties can then connect with each other and finalize the living arrangements.